Oregon House Votes to Legalize Medical Marijuana Dispensaries

By
Lauren Gambino, Associated Press
on June 25, 2013

The Oregon House took a step toward legalizing medical marijuana dispensaries on Monday as lawmakers narrowly approved a bill that would license and regulate retail outlets that connect marijuana cardholders with the drug.

Under existing law, the state’s nearly 55,000 medical marijuana cardholders must grow the pot themselves or find a person to grow it for them. The bill would give cardholders another option: purchasing their medicine from state-regulated medical marijuana retail outlets.

House Bill 3460, which passed 31-27, would require dispensaries to register with the state medical marijuana program and meet certain quality standards. The bill next goes to the Senate, which could vote on it later this week.

The bill sparked a hearty debate among lawmakers Monday.

Critics said it doesn’t do enough to stop what they see as abuses of the state’s medical marijuana program.

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Comments

1 Comment

Mrs. Ratsrectum on
June 25, 2013 6:27 pm

You could make a lot of jobs. Hey, listen up, I’m talking to you: jobs that pay taxes. You might as well just legalize cannabis for adult recreational purposes, too. Don’t be dumb! You can expect the number of MMJ patients to increase. Washington and Colorado have already put the camel’s nose in the tent. It says to the feds, we’re not going back so lead, follow or get out of the way! Sure there’ll be the bunch who want to cast shame on Oregon, but they’re not making the jobs for people, are they? Profit from the jobs! Make a WIN for FREEDOM. Feds are like the beatings will continue until morale improves and you come around to our way of thinking. Ha! Oregon went, too.